Super Science Showcase Christmas Treasury: Volume 1

By Lee Fanning, Nadiia Kovalchuk and Alejandro Fernandez

From the imaginative worlds of Super Science Showcase, enjoy this fun collection of yuletide stories sure to brighten-and smarten-your Christmas season! Explore the frigid wilds of colonial America with the Cuyahoga River Riders in search of a lost horse. Discover the many origins of the holiday with

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wonder Mill Cosmos
• Release date: Jun 2, 2023
• ISBN: 9781958721278

Book preview

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Published by Wonder Mill Cosmos 2022.

Super Science Showcase: Christmas Treasury vol. 1 Copyright © 2022 Wonder Mill Cosmos.

All Rights Reserved. Published in the United States by Wonder Mill Cosmos. No part of this story may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information: wondermillcosmos.com.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Illustrations by Nadiia Kovalchuk and Alejandro Fernandez

Photography by Austin Hammock

Costumes by Brittany Bodley

Logos designed by Andrew Persoff

Articles by Wilson Toney and Jessica Raspbury

Activities by Jessica Raspbury

with Contributions by Holbrook Patton

Editorial Contributions by Gail Dillard

Produced, Designed & Edited by Lee Fanning

superscienceshowcase.com

wondermillcosmos.com

Printed in the United States of America

First Edition 2022

THE LOST MARE

She was just gone, like a ghost, the boy Gideon had cried, as he had tried to explain his guilt to the Rider Frederick. The pair now ride alone together, each his own quarter horse, Frederick hunched and silent in front, Gideon soft shoulders behind, with those words still between them, even these days later.

The old mare’s been missing a week—likely stolen. Frederick had not ridden her for years, but her worth’s beyond that. She’s a proud and noble creature, brimming with a purpose since her youth.

She’d gone missing from the River Riders’ stable yards, part of their enigmatic compound some 30 miles up the river. It had happened on Gideon’s watch—the newest and youngest of the new and young recruits—the Riders’ Junior Legion—who, among other chores, tend to the Riders’ horses. Frederick knows it isn’t Gideon’s fault—the pair are close—but the boy—a former spy and patriot turned war orphan avenger—is determined to make it right to Frederick, aware of just how much that mare means to his friend. Gideon plods along behind Frederick, their horses matching step for step, on the exhausting fourth day of the search. It’s the season for chasing ghosts, and they’ll chase this one together.

It’s Christmas Eve, and the icy world around them is a kingdom of rugged branches, sharp vines and jagged rocks, all washed in a blank snow. While Gideon’s pale skin, shaggy blond hair and drab-colored clothes are appropriate here, Frederick’s stark image is as alien as a fallen angel. His rich black overcoat, hat, gloves and mask hide him well at night, but almost scream in these bright surroundings. Be that as it may, Frederick knows too well a troubling truth of his age—he’s still safer with the mask on, in disguise as the River Rider known as Dispatch, than he is without it.

Frederick turns back as his riding companion begins to mindlessly hum a Christmas carol, perhaps the first unnecessary sound he’s made in days. Boyish and cheerful, it’d bring life to the season at another time. But Frederick’s glare and rumbling growl assure the young rider this isn’t the right one, and Gideon swallows back his jubilant melody.

Right now, Frederick needs the silence. With thoughts in two worlds—the present and the past—he spots the possible tells of a horse-made trail in the raging winter around him, while his mind dwells on thoughts of the old mare. Fredrick’s memories are another ghost alive in this frigid season—a ghost he’d meant to leave behind. The quicker they found the mare, the better.

A few miles further down, not far from the banks of the frozen Cuyahoga River, Gideon seems again to take up his mindless merriment. Turning back for another grunting disapproval, Frederick sees that this time, his young companion isn’t making a sound.

There’s a distant cough. A moan. A call. Faint, but clear, nearer the river up the bank.

Gideon and Frederick share a decisive look.

On it! Gideon calls—his words ringing in the frigid air. He drops from his saddle and draws a pistol, too big for his small hand, but formidable all the same. He scurries closer to the sound as Frederick dismounts and follows, more patiently, leaving his own pistol holstered for now.

At the bank, Gideon stumbles as he finds a pale, wounded figure, nearly buried in the snow. It’s an old man, shivering and delirious, a gaping gash on his forehead. He mumbles at nothing and is unaware of Gideon, bleeding in the snow in his under garments.

Gideon calls back to Frederick. He awkwardly holsters his pistol and examines the suffering old man.

I think he’s in shock, Dispatch. His clothes—his boots—everything’s gone.

Frederick kneels by Gideon and eyes the lost man’s bluish skin and blackening feet. Frostbite. Hypothermia. Death, nearly.

A highwayman, surely, must have caught him on the road, Frederick concludes. Robbed him of everything, left him for dead. Probably stole—

His horse, Gideon says.

Frederick nods. For a moment, remembering his own lost mare, his thoughts are back in two worlds.

We have to help him, Gideon calls, bringing Frederick back to the present. He considers a long moment—a selfish, human moment. A part of him wants to tell his young friend it’s too late, that this stranger’s wounds and condition are fatal, that he is a dead man—and that they should leave and continue their search for the mare in earnest.

But he knows it’s not true.

There’s a family that lives a few miles from here—they might know him. We should take him there immediately, Frederick says with authority.

Do you think he’s going to be alright?

He’ll lose some toes—but if we can get him to a fire quick enough, he’ll live, likely.

At Gideon’s urging, they spring to work, lifting the man to the back of Gideon’s saddle, where the boy puts what extra blankets and outerwear he can spare onto the lost man—perhaps too much, Frederick complains, but the boy won’t hear it. In moments they break from the mare’s suspected trail and make southwest for the family’s settlement.

Leaving the veneer shelter of the bare woods, the rising winds slice into them as they cut across desolate fields towards their new destination. Gideon tries to hide it, but the elements take a fast toll on the now under-dressed underling. Frederick stays as much in front of him as he can, hoping his larger form in its over-sized costume will serve as some semblance of a shield from the wind for Gideon. But it makes little difference.

He calls back, turning his horse: Take my coat and disguise. He pulls back his mask, revealing a strong and sincere face, masculine and handsome, of African descent.

No, I’m all right.

It’s not a request. I’m older. And fatter.

Frederick offers the menacing mask with a lax wrist. Gideon sighs and takes it, as he does Frederick’s large dark overcoat, which is already big on Frederick, and absolutely swallows Gideon. The boy wraps it around his shivering form, his arms binding his chest. He slips the mask on the top of his head, but leaves its lip